"Bad news, you have a nut and bolt allergy"
A while back I posted a video from a Swedish TV show on "Magic nuts and screw threads", where two nuts that are screwed onto a bolt behave in decidedly non-nut-like ways. Deceptology reader Scott Elliot saw that puzzling magic hardware, and was inspired to create an even more deceptive demonstration by fabricating his own nuts and bolts. He explains:
It’ll interest you that I made a second version of my own Wrong-Way Nut
that behaves more like the one in the Magic Nuts video. Assuming it’s
an honest demonstration (and I promise it is) I think I’ve improved upon
their video:
- I thread the nuts onto the bolt one-at-a-time.
- You can see the threads advance when the bolt is turned, which confirms it’s a continuous thread not a series of ridges.
- Because the bolt is turned during the video, all sides of the threads are shown.
- I spun the nuts and let them pull themselves along the threads, which
means one isn’t just being slid along the rod by sleight-of-hand.- Both nuts are eventually shown to travel the whole length of the threads.
I
don’t have inside knowledge into how the "Magic Nuts and Screw Threads"
video was done, but I’m convinced it was probably honest now that
I’ve built my own model and made my own video:
Scott Elliot’s video:
2 Nuts go opposite ways on same screw thread
The original Swedish TV video:
Magic nuts and screw threads
The original post: